Enchanta: Dress-making with Teens

 

Dress-making is not something I am trained at. Simply picking up skills from little projects, how to make button-holes, how to create a pleat, how to attach a zipper. Each of these skills builds over time to bigger and better projects.

Costume design is something that my eldest child is drawn to. From a young age, she never wore her clothes the way they were intended. She paired things that I simply did not see as a match. She has a signature style, not only in her manner of dress, but all things.

She loved sewing and creating right from the get go. She would often hastily trace her shirts onto cloth, cut them out and sew them together, only to find she hadn't learned about seam allowance. The piece would be passed to her sister and she would try again next week.

Fast forward to today. She is nearing sixteen and was certainly born in the wrong era. Or at least, has lived a life or two before coming to this time. She loves medieval dress and history. So when we announced we were attending an Evening Fairy Festival, the first thing she thought about was costume.

She wanted a corset with a contrasting ribbon. A flowing, billowy skirt with plenty of pleats. Tea length. She insisted on boning, something she hasn't attempted before, to hold up her sleeveless bodice. She bought a black cotton bedsheet from the thrift store and this is what she came up with...